Death Wish: Morning Report 12/19/13

"'Do you think I'm wonderful?' she asked him one day as they leaned against the trunk of a petrified maple. 'No,' he said. 'Why? Because so many girls are wonderful. I imagine hundreds of men have called their loves wonderful today, and it's only noon. You couldn't be something that hundreds of others are.'" - Excerpt from Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

Pictured Above: Longleat, a stately home in England and current residence to the Marquesses of Bath. It is known for its Elizabethan country house, maze, landscaped parkland, and safari park — of which you're obviously staring down on the maze.

Crash Test: Brad Pitt to team up with Tom Cruise in Go Like Hell, Fox’s racing movie based on the book Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A. J. Baime. [The Hollywood Reporter]

The Trouble with Tramping: What make Chris McCandless, the controversial and ill-fated inspiration behind Into the Wild, so, well, inspirational. [Outside]

Rest in Pussy: Al Goldstein, publisher of Screw magazine, the first to bring unfiltered sex into the mainstream, has passed. [NYT]

Also, did you know... The hottest curry on Earth is not made in India or otherwise typically-assumed curry hotspots, but rather in Lincolnshire, England. "The Widower" is so hot that it is known to cause hallucinations. [The Independent]